Practical Advice for Going Online
Preparing for the cyberworld is like packing for a
trip.
By Sally Kuhlenschmidt,
Western Kentucky University
'The challenge of education is to prepare
students for their future-not our past!'
For teachers, "going online" may mean activities as
varied as answering students' questions by E-mail, requiring
students to use the Internet in a project, or interacting with a
class entirely via the Internet.
Many teachers feel overwhelmed and stressed about "going
online." The integration of the Internet into our daily lives
may well be regarded as a major event in 20th century
civilization, but living in the middle of a revolution can be an
uncomfortable sensation.
Teachers face particular challenges in implementing the new
technologies. We worry about losing sight of good and useful
traditions. We worry about wasting time. We may feel helpless to
identify where best to direct our energies.
Sometimes an analogy can help to make complex issues more
manageable and provide guidance on how to preserve what is
worthwhile from the past and recognize what is worthwhile in the
new. Try thinking of "going online" as similar to taking
a trip.
Travel occurs in several stages: planning, the actual traveling
to accomplish the objectives, and integrating what is learned into
your daily life.
I'm glad to serve as your tour guide on a trip into cyberspace
to identify issues of use and interest to educators.
Meet Sally Kuhlenschmidt
Sally Kuhlenschmidt is director of the Center for
Teaching and Learning and associate professor of psychology at
Western Kentucky University. She created her first Web page in
1996 and, since then, has created an online test and measurement
undergraduate course and developed a class for faculty about how
to teach using the Internet. See
http://edtech.tph.wku.edu/~internet/.
Her face-to-face courses, both graduate and undergraduate, also
incorporate a variety of Internet tools that range from
intelligence assessment to educational psychology. Kuhlenschmidt
has been active in the Faculty Development Workgroup of the
Kentucky Commonwealth Virtual University. |
